CHRONOLOGY: Like the other stained glass windows: 1559 (central oval) –
1560 (decorative parts); date confirmed by the inscription in the cartouche in
the interior half of the external frame on both the sides of this and the
contiguous window (n.4).

SUBJECT/S: the storied scene is part of
the cycle of the six windows (FIRENZE Val d’Ema Charterhouse 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
that narrate the main events of St. Bruno’s life, the founder of the
Carthusian order . This is the third of the three illustrating episodes of ‘Dr.
Raymond Diocrès’s Funerals’ taking place in Paris and during which it is
said that his remains raised three times crying meaningful sentences of the
divine justice. The phrases that were above the ovals are the following: in the
first one ‘ JUSTO DEI JUDICIO ACCUSATUS SUM" and in the following ones
(see FIRENZE Val d’Ema Charterhouse 2, 3): ‘JUSTO DEI JUDICIO JUDICATUS SUM’
, ‘JUSTO DEI JUDICIO CO(N)DEMNAT(US) SUM’. In St. Bruno’s life is narrated
that the saint, being present at that event, was so astonished that he decide to
retire to an ascetic life.

The cycle continues with the contiguous window (see FIRENZE
Certosa di Val d’Ema 4) where it is represented The dream of Hugh, bishop of
Grenoble, in which he saw seven gold stars rising to the sky and flying over the
mountains of the Dauphin state in a place called ‘Désert de Charteuse’,
chosen as the destined location of the first Charterhouse. The seven stars stood
for Bruno and his followers that applied to the bishop in order to obtain a
solitary place. In the following window (see FIRENZE Val d’Ema Charterhouse
5), Hugh of Grenoble, after personally escorting the seven hermits in the
Desért de Chartreuse, shows them the right place seen in his dream. In the
window the ends up the cycle (FIRENZE Val d’Ema Charterhouse 6), Bruno and his
followers are building the first charterhouse .

There are couples of decorations in the windows similar among
them (see FIRENZE Val d’Ema Chartehouse1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8) .

In both this window and the previous (n1) the motif that
frames the oval is a cartouche with two grotesqueries with a couple of facing
puttoes above it ; behind those a broken curvilinear tympanum architectonic
element with a vase in the middle and in it, a cartouche with an inscription.
Bottom, a double volutes motif on a winged protome with feminine features, wand
two festoons hanging from it.

the exterior decoration is composed of grotesque masks
alternating stylised vegetation. In the middle of the side motif, on both sides,
the Carthusian symbol and below, in a cartouche, the date ‘1560’. It’s
extremely interesting for the history of the mannerist windows to note how the
particular frame structure determines the ductus of the lancet drawings.

The background is made of colourless glass rectangular and
lozenge-like tessera, like a chess-board.

CRITICAL NOTES: Giuseppe Bacchi, in his Guide to the
monastery was the first to consult the archive sources and to annul the old
assignment to Giovanni of Udine that would have realized them on Raphael’s
cartoon (Guide 1861, p.34). Bacchi presumed the author was the glazier Maestro
Paolo of Brondo fro Genoa, except for the two windows that present the date
1560, works of Gualtieri of Flanders (Bacchi, 1930, pp.113-116).

Marchini (Marchini, 1958, pp. 56-57, 232) notes how Vasari,
entrusting the stained glass masters coming from the Flanders, adopted the
grotesquerie motif in the stained glass windows as a precious decoration, and
about that he cites the Laurenziana Library windows (see FIRENZE Biblioteca
Laureziana, the Charterhouse Colloquium and some halls of the Palazzo Vecchio
(see FIRENZE Palazzo Vecchio, grotesquerie 1).

A further comparative reading of the works style and of the
documents related to the cycles at the Colloquium goes beyond even the
considerations made in previous studies by the writer (Chiarelli, 1982, pp.
270-81) and carries to the following remarks.

Leaving the two incomplete windows momentary apart (see FIRENZE Val d’Ema
Charterhouse 7,8), in the other six ones two hands can be singled out together
with a further and more recent restoration that was more integrative than
preservative. The six central stained glass ovals are attributed to the first
hand: Raphaelesque is the influence, stylistically quite close to Giulio Romano,
they are characterized by a certain expressive ingenuity, clear in the somewhat
awkward manner of representing the figures, mainly when foreshortened. They turn
out to be a work by Paolo of Brondo. A glazier from Genoa, as confirmed by his
surname ‘Brondi’, a family whose presence is documented in Altare, a centre
of glass production, since the XVII century (cp. Malandra, 1983, p.20).

The
decorations and figures around the central coats of arms were attributed to a
second master, identified as Gualtieri of Flanders. That master reveals an
extraordinary freshness and fluency in the chiaroscuro effects of the grisaille
painting, and maybe of sanguine too, pointed out by a luminous silver yellow and
giving life to figures and grotesquerie motifs that from a stylistic and
iconographic point of view can be traced back to the mature Florentine Mannerism
area, in the same Vasari’s group. Besides, it must be noticed his contrapuntal
skill in the use of silver yellow with a technique spared along the border. It
is extremely interesting for the history of the mannerist stained glass window
to notice how the particular structure of the frame is a determining element for
the drawing ductus of the lancet window.

A far as the executive technique is concerned, the master’s
provenance is confirmed in a comparison with the works that the Flemish master
glaziers exported all over Europe.

That stylistic rereading was borne out by a further revision
of the archive documents: Paolo of Brondo seemed to be carrying out a
considerable work in order to realize the stained glass windows especially in
the church and in the guest quarters of the Charterhouse. He was paid for the
works, the materials and the equipment from October 19 1658 to December 1659
(21, cc.178r, 184v, 191r, 194v, 195r, 195v, 197v, 201r). on December 1559 he was
paid for ‘six oval figures of glass’ that, on the monks’ request, he
brought from Genoa (Ibid. c. 13v; n.45 c.25d). From January 1560 Gualtieri took
his place , a master glazier cited as the ‘Fleming’ ( in 22, c. 37v, 85
c.47s) that had a permanent appointment until July of the same year (22, cc.15r,
17r, 26v, 27r 35v, 37v,40r, 44r, 47v; 45 cc. 20, 24, 28, 29, 35, 36, 38,
42,48,53); he works with his cousin George (22.c.37v).

If we consider that until the winter 1559 they were still
building up the Colloquium (22, cc. 11r-v); that the wooden pieces of furniture
were realized only in the first semester of 1560 (22 c. 37r); and that finally,
on June 9 of the same year Antonio di Salvi ‘blacksmith at Galluzzo’ was
paid "libbre 287 fat in telaio per le ramate delle finestre, cioè il
finestrone sopra il coro, sei finestre per il Colloquio,…" (22.
c.38v) (22. c.38v) we can confirm the stained glass windows work could be
assigned only to Gualtieri of Flanders, the same master cited by Vasari in his
‘Vite’ (Lives), naming him together with his cousin George, as the executor
of ‘fired stained glass windows’ for the grand duke, on the same Vasari’s
drawing (Vasari, pub. 1881, VII. P.588) The technical skill as well is
characteristic of a Flemish master.

CONDITION: there are various re-leaded breaks. In the
border at the top a more recent unleaded break go all through the mixtilinear
cartouche. The grisaille painting faded away in some parts was restored by De
Matteis, a master glazier working for Ditta Bruschi that around 1907-10 was
active at the Charterhouse certainly not only as executor of stained glass
windows (his it’s the lancet window behind the main altar in Santa Maria
Chapel; cp. Bacchi, p. 85), but also as the restorer, a role assumed also in
other Florentine churches (cp. Orsanmichele, Santa Croce). The fact that Bruschi
was familiar with the windows of the Colloquium is proved by the group of
windows in the Kress Coll., now at the Birmingham Museum of Art, that are a
clear paraphrase of the Florentine ones. See De Matteis’ Atelier and
Birmingham Museum of Art. Raymond Diocrés’ Funerals a, b, c
, and The dream of Hugh of Grenoble.